Security threats against LTE networks: A survey

Abstract

Mobile Networks are rapidly moving from architectures based on GSM and 3 G to LTE. Security measures added to LTE includes stronger cryptographic primitives for authentication and encryption to plug the security holes of earlier generations. But the introduction of IP-based full inter-networking in LTE has increased the attack-surface. Despite strong authentication and encryption, there are still some messages being exchanged over the air, between an User Equipment (UE) and the eNodeB without integrity protection. This vulnerability opens the door to a severe threat landscape in the LTE network. LTE networks broadly compromises of Core Network and Radio access network. This paper presents a study on the attacks that inflict damage to the availability and privacy of the Radio access network. The paper also explores various vulnerabilities affecting the availability of Core network. Finally, a comparison of all the presented attacks based on the platform required by an attacker, affected range of the attack and impact of the attack is done.